Alan G. Robinson's Blog, page 3
April 10, 2014
Celebrate Ideas
In an earlier blog I wrote about how even a $5 reward can create problems with employee ideas. This does not mean that front-line ideas shouldn’t be celebrated and people’s contributions recognized. One of my favorite examples that shows some of the benefits of good celebrations come from Normand (Gene) Dunlap and Mike Terry of the Operations Excellence group at Raytheon IIS in Indianapolis, Indiana.
When Gene and Mike were given the task of setting up a high performance idea system, they face...
April 3, 2014
How To Tell If A Hotel Has A Good Employee Idea System in 20 minutes
I used to play a game with my daughters when they were younger. Whenever we stayed in a hotel or motel, we tried to see who could figure out the quickest if it had a good idea system. It usually didn’t take longer than 15 to 20 minutes.
Most often, it would be because we found an obvious problem that front-line employees were all aware of, but had been unaddressed. One time, for example, we drove up to Montreal for the weekend, and stayed in one of that city’s nicer hotels. When we got to our...
March 27, 2014
A Journey of Discovery: TWI and the Origins of Lean
In late winter of 1989 Alan Robinson and I were working on an article dealing with the power of front-line ideas. Alan had recently returned from Japan where he had been given exceptional access to a number of Japanese manufacturers, and had been able to study their processes in depth. His research had convinced him that part of the key to the manufacturing efficiency of these leading Japanese companies was in the large number of ideas they were getting from their front-line employees. At the...
March 20, 2014
Be Careful With Rewards
Can $5 screw up an idea system?
Recently we visited a company known for its creative products in order to study its idea system and innovation processes. The company is well-managed, the leader in its field in North America with every Fortune 500 company as a customer, and a significant player in several international markets.
While its employee idea system was getting some good ideas, the company’s managers believed that it should be performing much better. We confirmed this concern. During ou...
March 13, 2014
Idea Triggers: New Perspectives on Your Work That Will Make You Think Of Many More Ideas
As Leonardo da Vinci observed, problem-sensitivity is a key driver of ideas. Ideas come from problems and opportunities, so to have more ideas you have to train yourself to see more problems. One way to do this in an organizational setting is to come up with fresh perspectives on the work that you and your team do.
A number of years ago, we were at the headquarters of Dana Corporation in Toledo, Ohio. At the time, Dana, a global company with some 80,000 employees, was averaging 24 ideas per em...
March 6, 2014
Green Is Free?
Imagine an automobile manufacturer producing over a thousand cars a day, employing 3500 people, and putting less waste in landfills every year than an average family does every day. And imagine its green initiative is adding millions to the company’s bottom line each year.
The Subaru manufacturing plant in Lafayette, Indiana (Subaru Indiana Automotive, or SIA) is such a company. Its last waste shipment was sent to a landfill in May of 2004, becoming the first automotive plant in North America...
February 27, 2014
How Power Can Blind Managers To Front-Line Ideas
Why do so few organizations and leaders put much value on the ideas of their front-line people? Why do most leaders end up building institutions that generally do much better at suppressing these ideas than promoting them? There are many reasons. Here’s a major one.
Consider the constant reminders of their superiority that managers are bombarded with in the course of their daily work. They wear the suits, they have the private offices, they are the ones chosen for promotion, they are more high...
February 20, 2014
Innovations Need Small Ideas to Succeed
Have you ever been frustrated when your sticky note didn’t stick? When a note loses its adhesiveness too quickly it is often because it is not a genuine 3M Post-it Note. Why can’t competitors match the original after all these years? The answer lies in small ideas.
A while ago I had the opportunity to talk with Art Fry, the 3M scientist who came up with the original Post-it Note, and ask him about the reason behind the staying power of one of his company’s most successful innovations. Dr. Fry...
February 13, 2014
The Power In Front-Line Ideas
Every day, front-line employees see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity and customer service, to offer new or better products or services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways. But their organizations usually do better at suppressing these ideas than promoting them.
Managers often wonder how big an impact a high-performing idea system can have. Is building one really worth the time and effort involved? We have...
February 6, 2014
Welcome to the Idea-Driven Organization Blog
Welcome to the Idea-Driven Organization blog. We believe there are few things with more potential for improving an organization’s performance than ideas from its front-line employees.
Every day, front-line employees see many problems and opportunities that their managers don’t. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity and customer service, to offer new or better products and services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways. Unfortunately, most organizations do better at suppr...
